Ireland: State rejects UN demand on abortion

The government is disregarding its human rights obligations by not legislating for access to abortion despite being advised to do so by several UN committees, Brendan Howlin has said.

The state yesterday rejected a recommendation from a UN review body to repeal the Eighth Amendment, which equates the life of a woman with that of her foetus.

Last May Frances Fitzgerald appeared before the UN’s universal periodic review committee, where successive governments called on Ireland to comply with international human rights standards by making abortion accessible to women in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormalities.